“I was sitting on the sofa and just felt crap and I just thought I cannot be like this anymore,” she said. At the time the Lisburn scientist was around 20 stone in weight and a size 22/24 in clothes. She could only buy clothes online and not on the High Street and sometimes preferred to cancel nights out because of how she looked in comparison to other girls her age. "So I lifted my phone and searched up slimming groups near me – and there was one on within the hour. "I just got up and went to it,” she added. "There were no plans, no big decisions, no food prepped in the house, I just went there after I decided that I had had enough. And I went for it.” Natasha added that whilst she is “usually a big planner” she has found that “my impulsive decisions are always the best ones”. She said she found the first weight loss class okay as “when I walked in the door everyone was very welcoming and told me what I had to do and not to do and I felt comfortable”. "It felt good to be in a room full of people who wanted the same thing as me,” she added. She said that after getting weighed she went to the shop and “bought what I needed for the next day”. "That did me to the weekend when I would be doing the shopping. "I kept track of things easily and in my first week lost 8lbs,” she said. "It all felt pretty good – but it was just the cravings. I just fought them and was able to use my syns to cover cravings. “But I was buzzing after my first weight loss. "My husband was pretty cool when he saw what I was doing. "He would be a little overweight, but he plays rugby and is happy with his size – but he has now lost a little weight because there aren’t the same treats in the house”. Aware of the overwhelming social media noise about Ozempic and Mounjaro and other weight loss medication now, Natasha said: “Ozempic cuts down food noise, but I did it on my own. "I would never have taken it "I handled the cravings on my own and it is possible by making sure I ate breakfast. "I never ate that before so by 10am I would have been wanting a big chocolate bar. "But I eat breakfast 10 mins after I wake up and I am now starting to look forward to it. "I now put chocolate in my breakfast every day, so when I start my day with a little chocolate the craving is gone”. She added that now she starts her day with a dessert – “I have weetabix cheesecake for breakfast every day”. "I am still on the Slimming World plan and there are a list of free foods and food with minimal syns,” she said. “In the past I used to eat 4/5 slices of toast with butter. "Or I would have gone to the shop and got a wrap with 4 sausages and mayo in it. Now I can’t bear to think about it. "Now I have Weetabix cheesecake or a pizza wrap – I fill up. Also in the past I would have had a shop made sandwich and a chocolate bar. Now I would have fruit, yoghurt, granola. Breakfast and lunch can alternate. And for dinner I now have fresh food which is fun and I snack on fruit, pink and white’s, vegetables, some cheese”. Natasha says when she “was heavier I would have come up with every excuse not to go out”. "If I bought clothes I had to get them online – I was a size 24 and that was hard to get locally. “And even when they arrived they didn’t look the way I’d hoped they would. "I always wore black and baggy – and now I wonder why I hadn’t done it all sooner. “Now I can go out and buy and outfit, it fit me and I actually enjoy wearing it.” Natasha says she also notices “a big difference in how people treat me” after her weight loss. “I am now 11 stone 12lbs and still have some way to go. My goal is 11 stone. "But if there is anyone on the fence about going to that first class, you should know that everything you are doing is for yourself - and it will change way more than your physical appearance”. Now going out more than ever she did, Natasha says: “In my early 20s I never ever went out and I avoided everything. "But I have had so many events this year and I have really loved it. "My husband picking me up on holidays recently was the light of my life. It was just weird but so good. “I used to always say I’d love to be a size 12 and now I am one,” she added. Natasha says she owes a lot to Christine’s Slimming World in Lisburn.